Lena Dunham Quits Twitter Over "Verbal Abuse"

30 September 2015

Lena Dunham Quits Twitter Over "Verbal Abuse"

The Girls star and author has called it quits on twitter. In an hour long pod cast Re/code Decode Dunham freed herself of any social media hate. She has now hired someone to tweet for her. Her voice is out there, just she doesn’t have to read the crap that is said about here. She is minimising the noise of the trolls.

“I really appreciate that anybody follows me at all, and so I didn't want to cut off my relationship to [Twitter] completely, but it really, truly wasn't a safe space for me."

Dunham has come to the decision due to the barrage of "verbal abuse" and body-shaming comments she has been receiving on social media. Lena posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing just a sports bra and her boyfriend's boxers- some of the comments were less than flattering.

"It wasn't a graphic picture, I was wearing men's boxers, and it turned into the most rabid, disgusting debate about women's bodies, and my Instagram page was somehow the hub for misogynists for the afternoon. Even if you think, like, 'Oh I can read, like, 10 mentions that say I should be stoned to death and kind of, like, laugh and move on,' that's verbal abuse. Those aren't words that should be directed at you ever. And so, for me personally, it was safer to stop”.

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She has also saying that she has stopped reading sites such as Gawker: "I used to read Gawker and Jezebel in college and be like, I can’t wait to get to New York where my people will be to welcome me. And it’s like, it’s literally, if I read it, it’s like going back to a husband who beat me in the face — it just doesn’t make any sense."

The star has made a career out of being ‘the voice of her generation’ and in a world of selfies and the constant need for identity to be reaffirmed by social media her departure marks a trend we predict will be hitting the celebrities soon. Maybe Lena is too ‘honest’ for the celeb game and missed the memo on using it as a carefully crafted tool to share your life with fans rather than revealing who you really are. The very notion of her outsourcing her tweets contradicts what we thought she stood for. As her audience grows up, we wonder will they grow out of the self-entitled whining. We know we have!